Thursday, January 4, 2018

The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) begins 2018 in the same place as they began the 2017-18 season: Canoga Park, California, where they’ll play the 2018 Los Angeles Open. Thirty-one players are in the draw, and the top seed is Rocky Carson, not Kane Waselenchuk, as Carson is slightly ahead of Waselenchuk in the rankings, which seems crazy since Waselenchuk hasn’t lost a non-injury match since 2013.

But Carson has played more tournaments than Waselenchuk over the last 12 months, which is the ranking period, so he has passed Waselenchuk by a little over 84 points.

The seeding will probably just make Waselenchuk’s path to the final different than it usually is, although he’s probably not happy about being #2. Alvaro Beltran has moved past Daniel De La Rosa into the #3 spot, which would usually be a good thing, as it would mean avoiding Waselenchuk in the semis. But not this tournament. Sorry Señor Beltran.

Charlie Pratt, winner of the last IRT event of 2017, will try to win his 2nd IRT event this weekend, but he still has to play a qualifying match. If he wins that - versus Nicholas Riffel or Daniel Neri - Pratt will be up against Jansen Allen, then likely Daniel De La Rosa in the quarterfinals and Carson in the semis. Win #2 won't come easy, but then neither did win #1.

They are also playing doubles this weekend, and there are several good teams including top seeds Beltran and De La Rosa, and 2nd seeds Jake Bredenbeck and Jose Diaz. But also in the field are Allen and Pratt, Sebastian Franco and Mario Mercado, David Horn and Andree Parrilla, and Alejandro Landa and Samuel Murray.

Look to the IRT Network, or the IRT Facebook page, for this weekend’s action. The Round of 16 will be Friday morning at 10 AM with the quarter finals Friday evening from 6 PM. The semi-finals will be Saturday afternoon at 2 PM with the doubles semis at 5 PM Saturday. The singles final will be Sunday at 11 AM followed by the doubles final at noon. All times Pacific.